In my ninth-grade history class, my teacher had a quote on the wall from Martin Luther King Jr. that read, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” At the time, I am not sure I gave that quote (or any other, for that matter) much thought.
Most people are taught about historical figures and leave them at just that — a part of history. For whatever reason, people take the words and actions of past leaders and figures and fail to make connections to any meaning they possess outside of the historical era in which they were spoken.
Because we tend to think of the time period in which King lived as “The Civil Rights Era,” he is only recognized as a great Civil Rights leader. In reality, he means much more to history than that. For starters, he is one of the greatest modern philosophers, humanitarians and thinkers. Although his powerful words were brought to the forefront during the Civil Rights Movement, the ideals behind them are applicable at any time throughout the history of the human race.
As Monday once again commemorates King the Civil Rights Leader, it is time we recognize that his contributions were not just to a movement, but to humanity as a whole.

“The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.”

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

“It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.”

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”

People don’t say things like this anymore. I cannot think of one single person in the public spotlight who can si effortlessly utter meaningful and inspirational words. For those like me, who are too young to have lived through the era, all we have are the black and white clips pieced together in our history classes.
The larger issue, however, relates to what happens when another generation has grown up. If I have kids one day, I am seriously dreading having them sit in a history class, excited to learn about their parents generation, and having the teacher flip on an episode of Flavor of Love as a set of platinum grillz are passed around to show all of the kids what mommy and daddy were wearing on their teeth.
We need a few people to step up and quit letting Paris Hilton set the agenda for our generation. King would not have wanted people to spend a holiday started in his honor just taking the day off from work or school. Use his words, go out and become inspired!

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